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Feel free to read my latest essay about Bond #25 on Spy Command Essays and Spy Command Blog.
Lots of thanks to Mr Bill Koenig. I am curious what you guys think of it. It took me a while to write, and probably my English is a but rusty in some parts. Have fun reading. Any comments on Bill's blog would be greatly appreciated.
100% agree.
Sadly I don't believe EON is able to do something that would be as good as DN nowadays. Only GE and CR were as good. The rest is nowhere near the greatness of the old days.
Solely speaking of finales, yes LTK has never been rivalled since. Certainly not in Skyfall which is just shooting holes into an old house and the helicopter landing in a house has been done to death in countless movies.
EON...
1. Take another of Fleming's best books (good news, you own the rights!), hire a great writing team, develop and modernize it. Read it all the way through and like the script before you start filming.
2. Hire a director with a track record of handling not only actors, but suspense and action (as suspense before spectacle). More good news, you can afford anyone! So, choose wisely. Watch their movies and analyze their strength and weaknesses.
3. Get a composer that fits the material. Psst, you had one who did a pretty good job with QoS and CR, so looking shouldn't be too hard.
There are no guarantees as filming is always unpredictable, but if you follow the steps above, you should be fine.
The rest were 'meh' imho.
Not in my opinion.
I agree on less locations though. I'd say two locations outside of London at most. Tone down the globe trotting, it'd save time, money and actually give the audience a taste of what these places are like. Shanghai in SF for instance was appalingly underused for instance imo, it could have been any non descript city if it weren't for a couple of establishing shots. Show Bond interacting with locals, actually show the culture of the place, make the setting part of the film instead of just a backdrop for a chase scene or whatever.
Absolutely. I would particularly like to see this done in a place like Hong Kong or Tokyo, both of which are rich with sights and locales that to this day feel wholly unique to western civilization. Just strolling through those cities you feel like you've entered a whole different world. How difficult would it be to put that experience on film, but with Bond doing some cool investigative work, romancing a bit, meeting an ally for drinks, waltzing into some dangerous den, and a chase sequence or two? Seoul would work for this, too. Let's spend a good 45-60 minutes in one of these places and really get immersed in the culture.
Yes, things are different but tge core principles don't have to be. Look at CR; that film stands up there with the other old school classics. Getting a great Bond movie shouldn't be this difficult. Like what @DoctorNo was saying, EoN have the rights to Fleming's books; use them! Develop a great script that dispenses with unecessary bull crap like overblown, overpriced explosions and shitty car chases. Then, hire Gareth Evans to direct. I watched both Raid films again the other day and this guy is just a phenomenal director. His camera work is ridiculously impressive and the man knows action, suspense and drama. The Raid 2 car chase alone gets him the job.
....Anyway, yes, scale back on the bs and focus on telling a tight thriller with excellent action thrown in. EoN need to look back and remember their own Bond history. They have more than enough material and money to wow the world for years to come; if they can be bloody bothered.
The contrast between Hong Kong's older, more severely rundown apartments and factories and its great shining towers so perfectly representative of wealth and modernity is one of the more striking features of the city. It's almost impossible not to make Hong Kong look interesting on film. It's been perhaps my favorite city to film/photograph on my personal travels.
I was particularly disappointed when I saw The Dark Knight after hearing that Nolan had filmed on-location in Hong Kong for part of the film. It's barely there in the finished product apart from a few aerial shots and blurred out backgrounds behind close-ups of Bale and Freeman that could have been done in a studio. Right idea, astoundingly wrong execution. You saw more of "Hong Kong" in Batman Begins, if you ask me.
I haven't seen Snowden yet, but now I'm interested. Is Hong Kong a focal point in the film, or only seen briefly?
@boldfinger, I struggle to see, with all the themes the film explores of retiring and finding a new life, with Bond constantly being reminded what happens if you don't get out, why people still seem to think he's only going for a short time and will be back to MI6 in a week or two after taking a holiday, Madeleine be damned.
Seriously? I thought explaining to people the obvious meaning behind the shooting scene and death of Severine in SF (with Bond's "waste of scotch" line) was like coaxing a brick wall into life it proved so difficult, but this threatens to trump that exhaustive effort on my part, and for a moment just as transparent. I think it would do some good to pop SP back in and pay attention to the buildup to that moment.
I think one of the better uses of Hong Kong (although quite dated now) was in James Clavell's Noble House miniseries adaptation from 1988, which featured Pierce Brosnan in the starring role.
great read. totally agree. well done.
I found it interesting that you view a Daniel Craig return in Bond 25 as necessitating a standalone, more formulaic ending to set up the next actor, which is an avenue I don't see EON traveling down. I think Dan's run, much like Nolan's Batman that you like mentioning, will exist as its own separate thing in the franchise, and afterward the next actor and team will do something new just as Snyder and co. have done with what is now called the DC Extended Universe. New team, new ideas, new everything, a complete blank slate.
A return of Daniel won't have Blofeld slipping into the shadows, nor do I think we will see the film wasting time and energy setting up a future actor. Instead, it will be a no holds barred battle between the two. I also think it's far more likely the film will endeavor to tell the last Bond story and show Bond deciding what his future will be in great finality, retirement or a return to service.
They could go the route where Bond is compelled to take on Blofeld one last time (rescued from capture by Hinx?), and following the conclusion of that mission, he may go find Madeleine again (after she is put away safely) and drive off into his future away from the life he is now able to leave behind.
Or things could take a more interesting turn. We see Bond bored by his life with Madeleine, craving what he used to have, and he uses the opportunity of Blofeld escaping to throw himself back into service to live the life he really wants. He went with Madeleine thinking he had a chance to do something new, but found out it was never in him in the first place, and that maybe what happened with Vesper saved him from living a life that didn't suit who he was as a man where he was lying to himself about what he wanted. Madeleine gets angry at him for going back to MI6, telling him she thought he was past this, but Bond realizes where his real heart lies. He completes his mission, stops and kills Blofeld, and outs the rest of SPECTRE, cutting off that tentacle of villainy effectively. He has a final meeting with Madeleine where he confesses his feelings and how he can't see himself being tamed by a quiet life, and leaves her behind to continue working at MI6 and doing the work he was destined for.
I don't see the film going to far off the path of something like that. EON went to the taxing trouble of getting the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE back, and they are going to use them, big time, in a final Daniel Craig Bond film that holds nothing back.
Finished reading. Wonderful article. Thank you.
Personally I see the future of Bond a bit more brighter. No matter if Craig returns or not, BB + MGW won't have too many sleepless nights over a new script or direction.
Bond automatically will create a BO of at least 700 million, possibly 750 million USD worldwide. And that means even if the film would fail the critics.
The name James Bond alone will sell enough tickets to make enough ROI (Return on Invest).
Of course given, the production cost will not be insanely high, but I don't think it will be.
If Bond 25 would turn out to be another critics darling, like SF was, and won't face any strong competition at the cinema, another 900 million movie will be possible.
BUT what I believe is a certainty is, that Bond 25, or 26, or 27 will not make another billion. Bond isn't that big, it never was, it never will be.
Skyfall was a fluke. The 50th Anniversary lured in all generations to the cinema. That won't happen again.
Once that reality has set in with everybody, we can all get relaxed and just look forward to Bond 25 with the knowledge it will not be the last one, as it is guaranteed it will make profit no matter what.
It could very well happen yes. Realistically that's one of the scenarios I was pointing at. But, personally, I would feel rather gutted if they...go the Zack Snyder route. And let's face it...."Batman vs. Superman" was for the Batman-franchise what "SPECTRE" was for the Bond franchise....with a huge reboot-button added to it. And it didn't really.....work. "Batman vs. Superman" critically was a flop.
To me...personally.......I am kind of....tired of turning Bond into some sort of stage play vehicle on which the whole -forgive me- goddamn palet of human emotions is sticking to it like some kind of obligatory Oscar-vehicle :-P. I think...Martin Campbell, Marc Forster and Sam Mendes already went down that route....heavily. Luckily we already saw a bit of a 'plain, solid mission' showing up in SP. Now it's time to go full-throttle I think. Bond is a spy, not your next-door husband :-P.
Now, to.....round up the story with Madeleine, I do actually like this idea. I frequently pointed out that it could be pretty original to go the route that novels "FRWL" and "Trigger Mortis" went. In those novels Bond basically concludes or ends the love relationship at the very start with Tiffany Case and Pussy Galore. If done right, this could be interesting.
Let's see if Daniel Craig returns or not. One thing is for sure...the pre-production of Bond #25 will perhaps be as crucial and exciting as Bond #21...which eventually led to the great "Casino Royale". Interesting and fascinating times for a Bond fan :-).
Thanks anyway for your nice remark @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 ;-).
I hope with Bond 25 Bond is more of an enigma again, and less time is spent filling in his past or explaining how he became the man he did. I think that avenue has been well and truly explored for now.
When people talk about "making a classic Bond film", I think EON rather got the wrong end of the stick. I don't think people meant that they wanted to see Bond wear a white dinner jacket or battle evil henchmen, I think they meant they wanted an actual plot with a beginning a middle and an end. We don't need to understand why Bond does what he does, he has a license to kill, IT'S HIS JOB!!
A part of me thinks there is an impotence in the plot department that they are trying to compensate for with this aggressive character study malarkey.
Well, I do agree with you to a certain extend. But I do think the so called 'agressive character malarkey' isn't the real problem of a good plot. It's logic and plain common sense in the mission department. The reasoning needs to be sound and Bond's motivations must be more clear.
You can still have good character studies -it's actually something the Craig films excell at-, but it should be less related to personal and historical backgrounds and more related to more simple plausible circumstances and some fresh common sense.
You know, my mum and dad met each other in 1976 for the first time. Not because their parents were some kind of villains. But simply because they got a 'click' when they met somewhere. Peter Hunt knew how to do that with Tracy, Campbell knew how to do that with Vesper.
But again.........don't we want a WHOLE new type of Bond girl? What about a lesbian with a heavy Cockney accent who actually knows how to ridicule Bond in the most funny way possible? A bit like Tiffany Case....sans sexism :-). Let's get rid of the Tracy's, Vesper's and Madeleine's. Instead bring in a beefy girl who out of the blue screams in a realistic way "Bond, you're a c**nt!".
Well said. I'd be thrilled if Eon would just give us a "James Bond Movie" for B25. I feel with the Craig era, there's been so much tampering with formula, character, introductions, backstory, etc etc etc Eon has lost track of what a "James Bond Movie" actually is.
I agree, there are proper ways to do it. I just feel lately the plot has taken a back seat, like it isn't even a priority anymore.
I think with Bond 25 they should just focus on a tight plot with few loose threads. Then, if they want too, they can reintroduce those elements over time. We need a palate cleanser Bond film, like TND or OP or something. Not that silly tone, but something inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. I think someone said it best with "low-key".